1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a pallet jack attachment that is adapted to be coupled to the forks of a conventional pallet jack so as to be able to engage and drag a standard pallet out of a shipping container without the aid of a forklift, whereby the pallet is then readily accessible to be lifted and carried by the pallet jack to another location.
2. Background Art
Pallets have long been used as a means of support on which a shipment of goods is carried. The pallets and the goods stacked thereon are typically transported in shipping containers via air, land and sea. The pallets commonly have openings along the front and rear ends thereof that are particularly dimensioned for receiving therethrough a pair of forks of a well known forklift or pallet jack. The forklift or pallet jack is driven towards the front (or rear) of the pallet so that the forks move inwardly through the openings. The forks are then raised so as to correspondingly lift the pallet, whereby to relocate the goods stacked thereon from one place (e.g. a shipping dock) to another at which the goods can be inventoried and designated for their ultimate destination.
It would be desirable to load the pallets within a shipping container (e.g. of the type that is commonly pulled by a truck) so that the pallets are oriented sideways relative to one another. In this case, approximately 22 pallets will fill a standard 48 foot shipping container. However, when they are disposed sideways, the pallets will not be aligned to receive the forks of the pallet jack through the particularly dimensioned openings at the front ends thereof. Inasmuch as the goods stacked on the pallet are usually quite heavy, it may not be an easy task for either a single workman or a few workmen to reposition the pallets to be able to receive the incoming forks of the pallet jack. Consequently, the process of off-loading the shipping container will become both time consuming and cumbersome and may necessitate that the stack of goods be broken down manually so that they can be removed from the container if a forklift is not available.
Of course, it is possible to load the pallets into the shipping container in a lengthwise fashion so that the special openings at the front ends of the pallets are accessible to the incoming forks of the pallet jack. However, in this case, the number of pallets that can be loaded lengthwise into the standard 48 foot shipping container is reduced to about 18. Hence, the efficiency by which the goods are shipped is decreased while overall transportation costs are increased.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to have available an adapter that can be quickly and easily attached to a pallet jack so as to enable pallets that have been efficiently arranged sideways relative to one another to be off-loaded from a shipping container without the aid of and the expense associated with maintaining and operating a forklift.